Picked it up and read it yesterday. I thought it was another solid book.

Spoilers....

It was great seeing Christine Vale (?) and Tuvok (?) on Titan. I thought it was an interesting choice to use Trek Lit. characters there, but not on the Enterprise. Unless Lt. Archer is coming to Trek Lit., and I wouldn't mind that at all.

Also, the end of the book actually provides a neat way to bring Data back. I've heard (but not read) that this has been done in David Mack's current TNG novels. But if it hadn't, Hive could've been a way to do it. Better, IMO, than how his resurrection was explained in the Countdown story.

Picked it up and read it yesterday. I thought it was another solid book.

Spoilers....

It was great seeing Christine Vale (?) and Tuvok (?) on Titan. I thought it was an interesting choice to use Trek Lit. characters there, but not on the Enterprise. Unless Lt. Archer is coming to Trek Lit., and I wouldn't mind that at all.

Also, the end of the book actually provides a neat way to bring Data back. I've heard (but not read) that this has been done in David Mack's current TNG novels. But if it hadn't, Hive could've been a way to do it. Better, IMO, than how his resurrection was explained in the Countdown story.

Click to expand...

I'm wondering if the Hive isn't going to end up as a sort of prequel to Countdown

Issue 3 is decent entertainment. It does seem the name of the game here is to reunite the TNG cast, which is fine, given this is supposed to be in celebration of the 25th anniversary. But then, at some points they seem to be trying a bit too hard, like how they wrote the Titan off and now Riker's back to his post on the Enterprise's bridge.

Also, what's with the picking and choosing from novel continuity? The story itself is very incompatible with the novel contnuity, though we've seen novel ship designs pop up, including that of the Titan. And now the Titan's bridge has Vale and Tuvok on it. Why was Tuvok wearing red? Admittedly, I've only read a few Titan novels, but since he's supposed to be the tactical officer (and indeed is at tactical in his Hive cameo) shouldn't he still be in gold?

Also, what's with the picking and choosing from novel continuity? The story itself is very incompatible with the novel contnuity, though we've seen novel ship designs pop up, including that of the Titan. And now the Titan's bridge has Vale and Tuvok on it.

Click to expand...

Nothing new about such picking and choosing. Various Trek licensees have been borrowing elements from each other's incompatible continuities for decades, like DC Comics using Romulan ship designs from FASA games, or DC's Who's Who in Star Trek cherrypicking backstory from both Enterprise: The First Adventure and DC's own completely contradictory version of Kirk's first mission as Enterprise captain. You also have canon borrowing characters' first names like Hikaru Sulu and Nyota Uhura from the novels, or Ron Moore tossing in a Final Reflection reference or two on DS9 even after years of creating an entirely separate version of the Klingons, or Enterprise borrowing Andorian lore from an RPG manual that it no doubt contradicted in other ways. And of course the Shatnerverse novel Captain's Glory also used characters from the Titan novels while completely contradicting their continuity, and Star Trek Online has used the novels' design for the Luna class despite being inconsistent with the novelverse.

It's no different from, say, the Superman comics adopting Jimmy Olsen and Perry White from the radio series, or the Batman comics adopting Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya from the '90s animated series, or Agent Coulson showing up on the animated Spectacular Spider-Man. Or the various different continuities of Godzilla movies bringing back the same monsters in different forms. Different versions of the same franchise borrow elements from each other all the time.

what's with the picking and choosing from novel continuity? The story itself is very incompatible with the novel contnuity, though we've seen novel ship designs pop up, including that of the Titan. And now the Titan's bridge has Vale and Tuvok on it. Why was Tuvok wearing red?

Click to expand...

Well, being colourblind, I didn't notice, but colouring errors happen all the time. Did you see the bald Bolian medic with a white head where his stripes are?

I would venture that neither Vale nor Tuvok were mentioned in Braga's story (or the writers' manuscript) and that artist Joe Corroney just added those characters as his contribution to the coolness factor.

Nothing new about cherrypicking from TrekLit continuity, but it's rare enough that we can celebrate when it happens!